The Trouble with Virtue: A Comfortable Wife / A Lady By Day. Stephanie Laurens

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      #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens and rising star Alison DeLaine bring you two tales of passionate temptation…and decorum overthrown.

      A Comfortable Wife

      Miss Antonia Mannering has made plans that include her long-ago friend Lord Philip Ruthven. She knows Philip is popular with the ladies, but he has never married. Might he now be ready for a wife? If she could only prove that she could run his home, not disgrace him in Society and be a comfortable wife, surely he would propose to her. But when love enters the equation, Antonia might be getting more than she bargained for….

      A Lady by Day

      Recovering from scandal, Josephine, Countess of Mareck, has secured a second chance at respectability. And she certainly will not risk it for Sir Noah Rutledge, who’s returned to London from the Mediterranean to secure a new business venture. But when Noah confronts Josephine and puts her secrets at risk, he stirs a most unexpected desire. With the ton watching closely, she must be careful not to fall for an unsuitable man. Unless love proves stronger than Society….

       www.StephanieLaurens.com

       www.AlisonDelaine.com

      Praise for the novels of

      “All I need is her name on the cover

      to make me pick up the book.”

      —New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard

      “Laurens’s writing shines.”

      —Publishers Weekly

      “An interesting and absorbing plot…

      an exciting and appealing romantic mystery.”

      —FreshFiction.com

      “The sensual tension simmers…and, as always,

      Laurens delivers the delicious heat as they fall in love.”

      —Michelle Buonfiglio, myLifetime.com

      “Laurens spices up her superbly sensual,

      elegantly written love story with a generous measure

      of splendidly entertaining.”

      —Booklist

      “A fast-paced, action-packed, historical romance. Stephanie Laurens has another winner on her hands.”

      —The Romance Readers Connection

      “Danger, intrigue and seduction aplenty—

      will leave you satisfied yet hungry for more.”

      —Romance Reviews Today

      Other must-have reads from

      #1 New York Times bestselling author

      Stephanie Laurens

      An Unwilling Conquest

      A Lady of Expectations

      The Reasons for Marriage

      Fair Juno

      Impetuous Innocent

      Four in Hand

      Tangled Reins

      And coming soon from Alison DeLaine

      A Gentleman ’Til Midnight

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       A COMFORTABLE WIFE

       A LADY BY DAY

      A Comfortable Wife

      Dear Reader,

      In writing An Unwilling Conquest, the third book in the Lester trilogy, one character, Philip, Lord Ruthven, positively begged to be made a victim of love. His attitude as displayed in An Unwilling Conquest could not go unanswered—and that’s how A Comfortable Wife came about. Miss Antonia Mannering was the young lady who had Philip most determinedly in her sights. As a husband. The possibility of love never entered her head—she was far too levelheaded, and she knew Philip too well. She was looking for a husband, and by now he should be looking for a wife—to her, their aims were compatible. All should have been terribly comfortable, except…

      What happens when love gets stirred into their equation is told in A Comfortable Wife. I hope you enjoy seeing Philip succumb to a passion that becomes more precious than anything else in his life.

      Stephanie Laurens

      Contents

       Chapter_ONE

       Chapter_TWO

       Chapter_THREE

       Chapter_FOUR

       Chapter_FIVE

       Chapter_SIX

       Chapter_SEVEN

       Chapter_EIGHT

       Chapter_NINE

       Chapter_TEN

       Chapter_ELEVEN

       Chapter_TWELVE

       Chapter_THIRTEEN

       Chapter_FOURTEEN

       Chapter_FIFTEEN

      CHAPTER ONE

      “THIRTY-FOUR, MY DEAR HUGO, is a decidedly sobering age.”

      “Heh?” Startled from somnolence, Hugo Satterly opened one cautious eye and studied the long-limbed figure gracefully lounging on the opposite carriage seat. “Why’s that?”

      Philip Augustus Marlowe, seventh Baron Ruthven, did not deign to answer—not directly. Instead, his gaze on the summer scenery slipping past the carriage window, he remarked, “I would never have thought to see Jack and Harry Lester competing over who would provide the first of the next generation of Lesters.”

      Hugo straightened. “Tricky prediction, that. Jack suggested laying odds but Lucinda heard of it.” Hugo grimaced. “That was the end of it, of course. Said she wasn’t about to have us all watching her and Sophie, counting the days. Pity.”

      A fleeting smile touched Philip’s lips. “An uncommonly sensible woman, Lucinda.” After a moment